Recording of the Month
Carl Maria von Weber: Oberon
Libretto by James Robinson Planché
Clemens Kerschbaumer (Oberon), tenor
Mirko Roschkowski (Hüon von Bordeaux), tenor
Dorothea Maria Marx (Rezia), soprano
Grga Peroš (Scherasmin), baritone
Marie Seidler (Fatime), mezzo-soprano
Dmitry Egorov (Puck), countertenor
Roman Kurtz, narrator
Chor und Extrachor des Stadttheaters Giessen
Choral Conductor: Jan Hoffmann
Philharmonisches Orchester Giessen
Conductor: Michael Hofstetter
Recorded Live December 2016 and January 2017, at Stadttheater Gießen, Germany
Released on July 12, 2019 by Oehms Classics
For the specific atmosphere of Oberon, Michael Hofstetter found it crucial that the performance was played on the period instruments Weber composed for. In Giessen, he worked with four natural horns, natural trumpets, finely tuned trombones and not least flutes made of wood instead of metal. This produced an inexhaustible wealth of acoustic colors, enabling us to sensually experience what might really be meant by the concept of "German Romanticism" on the musical level.
Michael Hofstetter conducts at many well known opera houses, orchestras and festivals, include the Bavarian, the Hamburg, the Hanover and the Stuttgart State Operas, Theater an der Wien, the Royal Opera Copenhagen, the Welsh National Opera, the English National Opera, the Houston Grand Opera, the Canadian Opera Company Toronto and many others. Future engagements will see him again at the International Handel Festival in Halle, with Orchestre national d'Île-de-France in Paris and at the International Gluck Festival Nuremberg.
Source: prestomusic.com
Mari Samuelsen, violin (G. B. Guadagnini, Turin 1773)
Konzerthausorchester Berlin
Conductor: Jonathan Stockhammer
Recorded October 2-6, 2018 at Konzerthaus, Berlin, and November 2-3, 2018 at Teldex Studios, Berlin
Released on June 7, 2019, by Deutsche Grammophon
Norwegian violinist Mari Samuelsen's debut for the Yellow Label is entitled simply MARI, and is set for international release on 7 June 2019. Recorded with the Konzerthausorchester Berlin and conductor Jonathan Stockhammer, the album explores the contradictions of contemporary life – the fact that, despite the excitement of city life and the convenience of instant communication and express travel, many of us still feel a need to ground ourselves in the peace and quiet of the natural world. Mari herself was born in rural Norway and goes back to the family farm as often as her schedule allows. She was keen, therefore, to choose a selection of music echoing the conflicting pulls on our time and energy.
At the emotional heart of the album is Bach's Chaconne in D minor, whose serenity Samuelsen has chosen to counter with the nervous agitation of "Knee Play 2" from Philip Glass' Einstein on the Beach. The rest of the programme of her DG debut grew organically from the seeds of Bach and Glass, tracing themes of change and renewal, from the increasingly complex variations of the Chaconne to the expansive melodic development of Clark's Mammal Step Sequence. The album also combines familiar repertoire with brand-new pieces from some of today's leading composers and musicians.
Mari tested different combinations of compositions, carefully considering the ways in which they related to one another and to the whole. The finished recording contains pieces as diverse as Vladimir Martynov's The Beatitudes, Peter Gregson's Sequence (Four), arrangements of Jóhann Jóhannsson's Heptapod B and Brian Eno's song By this River, and Pēteris Vasks' Vientulais Engelis (Lonely Angel). The mix also includes four works by Max Richter, with whom she collaborates on a regular basis, including Vocal, for solo violin, and the wonderfully hypnotic November.
As MARI reveals, Mari is an artist with a fresh and intelligent vision of the world. She respects the masterpieces of the past but is fearlessly adventurous when it comes to new repertoire and innovative musical partnerships. An advocate of creative communication and attentive listening, she understands that we all yearn for moments of quiet contemplation. "The need to go into a room and just listen to sound – almost like sound therapy – is bigger than ever", she observes. "People are hungry for it, and I wanted to use my creativity to collaborate and experiment with some of the great people living today. Slowing down, and people leaving their busy lives behind, is only going to become more important, so there will be more room for this type of collaboration, and this type of music, in the years to come."
Source: deutschegrammophon.com
Stenhammar Quartet:
Peter Olofsson, violin
Per Öman, violin
Tony Bauer, viola
Mats Olofsson, cello
Recorded May 19-21 (Debussy) & September 27-29, 2016 (Tailleferre), and March 30-31, 2017 (Ravel) at the Petruskyrkan, Stockholm
Released on July 5, 2019, by Alba
On this new release one of Scandinavia's foremost string quartets, the Swedish Stenhammar Quartet, perform pieces by Claude Debussy, Germaine Tailleferre and Maurice Ravel. The quartet's previous recordings have been internationally praised by critics, and this new album will certainly be no exception. "The Stenhammar Quartet produces a clean and vibrant sound, they use a range of well-judged dynamics and the articulation is exceptionally good throughout". (MusicWeb International)
Germaine Tailleferre (1892-1983) was a member of the French group of composers known as Les Six. She composed only one string quartet, in 1917-1919, when Les Six were just making a name for themselves. The Tailleferre String Quartet is a sonatina-like work in three movements and has the gracefulness and understated languor of Ravel's Neoclassicism and Les Six. The first and second movements are vigilantly dreamy and at the end return to the beginning without more ado. The last movement tells a richly eloquent story with bizarre situations, dry humour and ambiguous sentiments.
Claude Debussy (1862-1918) and Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) both made one excursion into string quartet territory, producing a pair of works that both became highly popular items in the repertoire. As the model for his Quartet of 1902, Ravel took the one by Debussy completed some ten years earlier in 1893; hence the excitingly non-identical twins are mirrors of music described as impressionistic. The two quartets come closest to each other in their impishly saucy pizzicato scherzos, their down-to-earth tempo underlining their groovy sardonicism. They also both have slow movements with deep, deep pools and finales that, instead of being conventionally jubilant, draw together the work's thematic threads and leave a lasting impression of sullen intransigence.
The Stenhammar Quartet has been active since 2002. The works of Wilhelm Stenhammar naturally play a central part in the ensemble's programmes, but their repertoire ranges from Baroque to contemporary music. The quartet regularly commissions works from Nordic composers such as Sven-David Sandström and Bent Sørensen, and has also been the dedicatee and given first performances of works by composers from the USA and Great Britain. The SQ has recorded extensively for Swedish Radio and various record labels and the ensemble's previous discs have received nominations for the Swedish "Grammis" Awards. In 2009 the ensemble was commended by the Royal Swedish Academy of Music for its contributions to Swedish music.
Source: europadisc.co.uk
I found the Stenhammar Quartet's performance of these three string quartets thoroughly engaging and satisfying. The playing is always well-balanced, always presenting the subtle, nuanced mood of this music. Warmth and sensitivity are offered where appropriate, as well as the occasional rhapsodic abandon.
The sound quality is excellent and allows the listener to appreciate every detail of the playing. The liner notes, printed in English and Swedish, are informative.
On the one hand, this CD is yet another edition of the two most famous French string quartets, but on the other, there is the added value in the outstanding offering by Germaine Tailleferre. This latter is a worthy piece of chamber music that deserves to be in the repertoire alongside its better-known companions.
Source: John France (musicweb-international.com)
Maria Keohane, Hanna Bayodi-Hirt, sopranos
Carlos Mena, countertenor
Jeffrey Thompson, tenor
Matthias Vieweg, baritone
Enrico Gatti, Maité Larburu, violins
Lucile Boulanger, Mathias Ferré, Salomé Gasselin, Philippe Pierlot, violes de gambe
Maggie Urquhart, bass
Daniel Zapico, theorbo
François Guerrier, organ
Ricercar Consort
Conductor: Philippe Pierlot
Recorded September 2016 at l'Abbaye de la Lucerne d'Outremer, France
Released on April 12, 2019 by Mirare
Over the past four decades, the Ricercar Consort has proven to be a formidable force in early-music performance whose reputation was founded on German Baroque music. It stands to reason, then, that the Belgian ensemble's new recording of Buxtehude cantatas would continue their legacy of excellence – and it does.
Dietrich (or Dieterich) Buxtehude (c. 1637-1707) has until relatively recently been best known for his keyboard works. He was a very well-known organist in his day, and the legend persists that Johann Sebastian Bach himself once traveled for over three hundred kilometers to hear him play. But Buxtehude was also a prominent and influential composer of vocal works, and more than 100 such compositions survive, a fact to be celebrated given that so many of his pieces were lost. Of all these vocal works, only one is dated by Buxtehude himself: The cycle of seven cantatas collectively called Membra Jesu nostri was dedicated to Gustav Düben, an organist, composer, and director of music to the King of Sweden, in 1680.
The fact that it is dated is not the only thing that sets this work apart. While the rest of Buxtehude's cantatas adhered to the Lutheran style of setting sacred works in German, Membra Jesu nostri is entirely in Latin – not a marker of Catholicism, but rather of the kind of musical erudition Buxtehude saw in Düben. Buxtehude wrote or compiled its text himself, largely from the Medieval hymn "Salve mundi salutare". The text of this hymn is divided into seven parts, and thus the work itself is divided into seven self-contained cantatas, each describing a different section of the crucified body of Jesus. In this respect, the piece is a musical counterpart to Martin Luther's sermons on the Passion of Christ, which emphasized both its ecstasy and its anguish.
So does the Consort. They show off their exquisite blend in movements such as the intimate, tortured "Vulnerasti cor meum", the gorgeously intense concerto "Quid sunt plagae istae", or the rocking lilt of "Salve, caput cruentatum", but also their great precision in the agitated off-beat accents of the concluding Amen. The much shorter concluding cantata Gott, hilf mir also gives them a chance to show off their more urgent side, over and against the pathos of the longer first work. If there were such a thing as a drawback here, it would be that the violas da gamba are so sparingly called for by Buxtehude that we only get to hear them in the "Ad cor" cantata.
Having performed the piece myself, there are moments in which their decisions on tempo or phrasing differ from what lives in my mind’s ear, but their choices are effective, suiting well both the works themselves and the particular construction of their ensemble. Vocalists and instrumentalists (and director) alike are to be commended for such a beautifully transparent, luminous performance, which certainly earns a high place in the field of Buxtehude recordings.
Source: Karen Cook (earlymusicamerica.org)
Nicola Benedetti, violin
The Philadelphia Orchestra
Conductor: Cristian Măcelaru
Recorded November 2-4, 2017 at the Kimmel Center, Verizon Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. (Violin Concerto), and March 27, 2019 at the Menuhin Hall, Stoke D'Abernon, Surrey, England (Fiddle Dance Suite)
Released on July 12, 2019 by Decca
Nicola Benedetti's new album on Decca Classics features premiere recordings of two works written especially for her by jazz musician Wynton Marsalis: Violin Concerto in D and Fiddle Dance Suite for Solo Violin.
Benedetti performs Violin Concerto in D with The Philadelphia Orchestra under the baton of Cristian Măcelaru who has collaborated with the violinist to perform the work six times. The concerto was co- commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO), Ravinia, LA Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra Washington, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and Netherlands Radio Philharmonic. Benedetti performed the world premiere with the LSO under conductor James Gaffigan in London in November 2015.
Marsalis' Violin Concerto in D is in four movements and draws on the entire sweep of Western violin pieces from the Baroque era to the 21st Century. It explores Benedetti's and Marsalis' common musical heritage in Celtic, Anglo and Afro-American folk music and dance. The work revels in the magic of virtuosity and takes inspiration from Nicola's life as a travelling performer and educator. Each of the four movements reveals a different aspect of Nicola's dream which becomes a reality through the long-form storytelling of the performance.
Wynton Marsalis commented, "Nicky said she wanted a piece that would allow her to inhabit an expansive range of human emotions. Though I have long loved the violin, she schooled me in its august history, in its tremendous expressive capabilities, and in a compendium of old and new techniques. From a very young age, Nicky's dream was to move people with the magic of virtuosity and the warmth of her sound. The concerto begins with her telling us the story of her dream, the playing of it IS the realization of that dream, and it ends with her going down the road to play for the next gathering".
Nicola Benedetti commented, "This project has been a deeply edifying experience – one I will always reflect on with immense gratitude. It has been a privilege to learn and perform these two inspired and unequivocal masterpieces, and to deepen my understanding of Wynton's compositional language, cultural richness and philosophical insights. These compositions take us from the introspection of a Spiritual to the raucous celebration of a Hootenanny, from a lullaby to a nightmare, and from a campfire to a circus. We travel far and wide to distant corners of the world, the mind and the soul. Long-form musical pieces are often described as a journey. This sure has been a rich and fascinating one, and I am thrilled to now share the results with you".
Source: highresaudio.com
[...] The second piece, Fiddle Dance Suite for solo violin, reflects the music of traditional dance styles. The five movements – "Sidestep Reel", "As the Wind Goes", "Jones' Jig", "Nicola's Strathspey" and "Bye-Bye Breakdown" – include a hoedown, jig, reel and hornpipe.
Benedetti said, "It has been a privilege to learn and perform these two inspired and unequivocal masterpieces, and to deepen my understanding of Wynton's compositional language, cultural richness and philosophical insights. These compositions take us from the introspection of a Spiritual to the raucous celebration of a Hootenanny, from a lullaby to a nightmare, and from a campfire to a circus. We travel far and wide to distant corners of the world, the mind and the soul".
Nicola Benedetti is one of the most respected violinists of her generation and one of the most influential classical artists of today. She frequently performs with major orchestras and conductors across the globe. Benedetti was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2019 New Year Honours List, for services to music, and was the Winner of the Best Classical Award at The Global Awards 2019.
Wynton Marsalis is an internationally acclaimed musician, composer, bandleader, educator and a leading advocate of American culture. He is the world's first jazz artist to perform and compose across the full jazz spectrum from its New Orleans roots to bebop to modern jazz. He has expanded the vocabulary for jazz and created a vital body of work that places him among the world's finest musicians and composers.
Source: Sharon Kelly (udiscovermusic.com)
Changyong Shin, piano
Recorded January 22-23, 2019 at Steinway Hall, New York City
Released on July 5, 2019 by Steinway and Sons
Changyong Shin's 2018 solo debut CD on the Steinway & Sons label featured a performance of Beethoven's Op.101 sonata that revealed this young pianist's affinity for the composer's linear aesthetic, if not necessarily the combative emotional subtext behind the notes. One can say the same vis-à-vis Shin's reading of Beethoven's Op.109, the opening salvo on his second Steinway release.
Shin conveys the first movement's improvisatory qualities well. His Prestissimo is contrapuntally aware and mostly clear, but without the litheness and dynamism one hears from Annie Fischer, Freddy Kempf, Igor Levit, and Stewart Goodyear. Although Shin's phrasing of the opening theme of the third-movement variations suggests little of the music's implicit calm and repose, piano mavens will notice his careful voice leading – and does Shin employ the una corda pedal on the repeats? Variation 2's broken rhythms come off uniformly genial rather than tension inducing, while Variation 3 is too sedate and studio-bound for such helter-skelter music. Shin clarifies Variation 5's difficult counterpoint with the utmost technical ease and sophistication. If his long chains of trills in Variation 6 don't reach Claudio Arrau's ecstatic heights, Shin compensates by way of a stronger-than-usual left hand presence.
Of Shin's three Chopin Waltzes, his superbly characterized and pianistically poised Op.42 stands out. By contrast. Op.18 contains a good number of fussy and ultimately ineffective expressive gestures, while Op.34 No.1 is melody-oriented at the expense of strong rhythmic backbone. However, Shin completely connects with Liszt's Bénédiction, unquestionably this disc's high point. He unifies Liszt's potentially sprawling opus with a fluid basic tempo for the outer sections that still manages to suggest spaciousness, while shaping the melodic line and undulating double-note accompanying patterns in gorgeously three-dimensional perspective. What is more, Shin's use of rubato enhances transitions and moments of felicitous harmonic interest. The Bénédiction is vulnerable to its interpreters, and can sound deadly and interminable in the wrong hands, but emphatically not here. Shin should record more Liszt.
Source: Jed Distler (classicstoday.com)
Passionate, inspired performances and brilliant technique are the hallmark of pianist ChangYong Shin. He brings those qualities to meditative yet virtuosic works by Beethoven, Liszt and Chopin. With performances in South Korea, Italy, France, the UK, and across the United States, and a growing reputation for compelling interpretations, Mr. Shin is developing an international career as a soloist and chamber musician. Mr. Shin released his debut album on the Steinway & Sons label in January 2018. Comprising works by Bach, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, the acclaimed album was listed as one of the "Best New Recordings of 2018" by WQXR. Shin began piano studies at the Yewon School in South Korea, then at the Korea National Institute for the Gifted in Arts. In 2011, he emigrated to the United States to study at the Curtis Institute of Music under Robert McDonald, where, as a recipient of a Paul G. Mechklin Scholarship, he received his Bachelor of Music in May 2016. In 2018, he earned a Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School, where he is currently enrolled in the Artist Diploma Program.
Source: hdtracks.com
Daniel Müller-Schott, cello
Herbert Schuch, piano
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Sir Andrew Frank Davis
Recorded January 17, 2019, Köln, Deutschlandfunk, Kammermusiksaal (tracks 1-5), & June 21-26, 2017, Melbourne, Hamer Hall Arts Centre (tracks 6-19)
Released on July 12, 2019 by Orfeo
We have rarely heard this work [Sonata] in such an exciting and rhetorical performance. Müller-Schott's and Schuch's playing is unusually free. Both musicians stimulate each other and remain permanently in a lively dialogue. The virtuoso passages sound fresh and with youthful verve, the intimate, beautiful moments of the second movement are very cantabile. In Don Quixote the musicians from Melbourne show an impressive orchestral refinement, and Andrew Davis succeeds in upgrading many passages that otherwise never become so clear. In addition, the conductor's distinct sense of drama gives the piece an immense rhetorical power and a great inner tension. The rich colours are splendid, the nuances are enchanting, the contrasts invigorating. A highlight is the absolutely grotesque fight against the herd of sheep. But it is not only the orchestral playing that fascinates. A determining element in the wonderful, very characteristic performance is the cellist Daniel Müller-Schott, whose playing is beautifully lyric and intensive. In the violist Christopher Moore, he has an excellent and expressive partner.
Source: Remy Franck (pizzicato.lu)
During his long and exceptionally fruitful creative life, Richard Strauss composed only a few works for the cello. Only three have survived and small as that number may seem, those cello works are critical to the composer's development. Daniel Müller-Schott sees the early Sonata for cello and piano in F major, Op.6, and the late tone poem "Don Quixote", Op.35, as marking the path that was to lead Strauss within the space of a few years from Romanticism to the Modern era in music. The cellist highlights this watershed in Strauss' artistic development with his own transcriptions, expressly made for this album, of the Lieder "Zueignung", Op.10 No.1, and "Ich trage meine Minne", Op.32 No.1.
Source: chandos.net
Albums that combine symphonic and chamber music are often very popular because they allow you to discover two complementary styles of music that aren't always listened to to the same extent. The marvellous German cellist Daniel Müller-Schott composed his last recording under the guidance of Richard Strauss and has decided to present the works in this series chronologically, beginning with the Sonata Op.6 composed by Strauss at the tender age of nineteen. Two Lieder transcribed for cello and piano are then followed by Strauss' greatest work for cello, his immense poem Don Quichotte for symphonic orchestra (with James Ehnes on lead viola). The cherry on top of the cake would have been the addition of the Romanze for cello and orchestra, a contemporary sonata that would be the perfect addition here.
Source: François Hudry (qobuz.com)
The albums were chosen by the owner and blog editor of "Faces of Classical Music", Alexandros Arvanitakis.
More photos
See also
The best new classical albums: January 2020
The best new classical albums: December 2019
The best new classical albums: November 2019
The best new classical albums: October 2019
The best new classical albums: September 2019
The best new classical albums: July 2019
The best new classical albums: June 2019
The best new classical albums: May 2019
The best new classical albums: April 2019
The best new classical albums: March 2019
The best new classical albums: February 2019
The best new classical albums: January 2019
The Faces of Classical Music Choose the 20 Best Albums of 2019
The Faces of Classical Music Choose the 20 Best Albums of 2018
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